HotOrNot Apparently Very Hot: Acquired For $20 Million — San Francisco based HotOrNot, founded by James Hong and Jim Young in October 2000, has been acquired, we've heard from multiple sources. — The buyers are investors connected with Avid Life Media, and paid somewhere around $20 million for the site.

10.5.2 update shows Apple listens to users — Over the years, Apple periodically comes under fire for not listening to its customers—specifically, for deciding on particular features (or a lack thereof) and then sticking by its guns regardless of the reaction. Although some of this criticism is off-base, some of it is spot-on.

U.S. Internet Advertising Grew by 27% to $25.5 billion in 2007, According to IDC - Google Loses Market Share for First Time in Two Years — As consumers spend more time on the Internet, companies are redistributing advertising dollars from traditional media to online media to follow this trend.

VentureBeat raises $320,000 seed round, traffic growing — VentureBeat has just raised a seed round, and I wanted to be the first one to let you know. The news is beginning to leak after we filed a regulatory document. — VentureBeat has grown steadily since launching more than a year ago.

CNN Launches iReport.com — Since CNN embraced the citizen journalist movement back in August 2006 with the launch of its iReport initiative, the news organization has received nearly 100,000 news-related photos and videos from viewers, including nearly 10,000 this past January alone.

T-Mobile Loses Starbucks; AT&T Becomes Wi-Fi Hotspot Giant — Big news, and I had not an inkling of it, lest you think your loyal correspondent always has the inside track: Starbucks is shredding its deal in place since 2001, originally with MobileStar then T-Mobile, to switch to AT&T as their Wi-Fi provider.

Teen hacker re-unlocks Apple's iPhone — A teen hacker known for his deftness with iPhones has figured out how to unlock models running the latest firmware versions by cracking a protection that that has frustrated hackers for weeks. — The breakthrough by George Hotz, aka Geohot …

The Coming Ad Revolution — While the big news in the online world focuses on Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, a more profound revolution is taking place on the online social networks: The discussion about privacy is changing as users take control over their own online data.